Critical Essay by Muriel Rukeyser

In the following essay, which was originally delivered as a lecture at a festival honoring Thoreau, the poet Rukeyser asserts that Thoreau's poems are “suburban in relation to the forest of the prose” and compares Thoreau to Sir Walter Raleigh.

Thoreau, whom we come to honor, speaks to us today. You have been hearing, seeing the traces of Thoreau in our own time. I imagine much of what I am going to say to you may be recapitulation. But I want to recapitulate for you, from this place where I stand, the effort of a person, in conscious life, to make something that can flash again and again...